Harry Redknapp, was born in Poplar, London

Portsmouth players are being sent back to school for English lessons to help the club get the best out of them.

With cockney Harry Redknapp as team boss and Scot Joe Jordan head team coach, something may have been getting lost in translation at Fratton Park.

So Pompey decided to enroll 16 of their foreign players at a local language college in Southsea.

"It is crucial for the players to understand instructions on the pitch," a spokesman for the college said.

"The lessons were inspired by the fact that the English level by the players and their wives was not adequate for living and working in Portsmouth."

It is not the first time players have needed lessons to understand their team-mates and coaches.

Swansea City's new Spanish recruits Jordi Gomez and Gorka Pintado needed to add more useable words to their vocabulary after the only bits of English they learned upon their arrival in South Wales were swear words.

But it is not always easy to grasp a foreign language, as Tottenham manager Juande Ramos can testify.

For months the Spaniard has lacked the confidence to speak publicly in English, but made his first televised press conference last week after a year in north London.